Morris: Asbury Park board botched school super pick

ASBURY PARK -- State monitor Carole Morris said she is frustrated with the school board's disregard of the state's requirements for the superintendent search process, and she may decide this week what to do about it.

Not only did members exclude one faction of the board from their selection of Gregory Allen as interim superintendent of the district, but the position was not advertised and no candidates were interviewed as the state Department of Education mandates, Morris said Monday.

"The more they botch this up, the longer it's going to take," Morris said.

Morris said if the board doesn't follow the appropriate process, she will be forced to appoint an interim superintendent herself.

But board president Geneva Smallwood said in an interview Tuesday that she was not aware the board needed to adhere to the process to which Morris referred.

"I didn't see anything abnormal about it," Smallwood said. "There has been all kinds of different processes (the board followed in the past)."

Former interim Superintendent Robert Mahon, who resigned in June, has agreed to lead the district until summer's end or until he is replaced, Morris said.

A decision on whether Allen will be permitted to hold the position could come as early as today, Wednesday, Morris said.

Morris, who has virtual control over Asbury Park schools, said she has spent the past week in discussions with state schools officials and met with leaders of the black community who support Allen.

Brother John Muhammad, who was among those black leaders, said Tuesday that he believes Morris will overturn the board's decision. He said community members pleaded for Morris to consider Allen's qualifications but the monitor continued to stress the flawed hiring process.

Muhammad blamed the board's dysfunction on Morris, saying she vetoes many of their decisions.

"What our board has done is not against the law," Muhammad said during public forum at Tuesday's school board meeting. "The board is just not doing what (Morris) thinks should be done."

It costs an average of $30,845, the highest in the state for a K-12 district, to educate each of the 2,500 children in Asbury Park, and the bulk of the money comes from state taxpayers through state aid, according to 2012-13 budget data. The district spends roughly $70 million to operate its six schools.

Yet the district had a 51 percent graduation rate in 2013, one of the lowest in the state. About 54 percent of Asbury Park fifth-graders entering middle school read at a first-grade level, according to a report from the state's fiscal monitor, who has the last say over who the board hires or fires and how it spends tax dollars.

The school board voted earlier this month to hire Allen to replace Mahon.

Black activists here, along with board member Felicia Simmons, believe that only a black person can solve the problems in a school district like Asbury Park, a 1.4 square-mile city of 16,000 that is 64 percent minority. Allen is black and from Cherry Hill.

Five out of the nine members were in favor of Allen, while the other four say they had no idea the board was making a decision on a schools chief.

Meanwhile, the school board's lawsuit against Morris for overturning its first attempt to hire Allen last November has been delayed indefinitely. The appeal was supposed to be heard this week in the Office of Administrative Law but the school board was not prepared to present its case, Morris said.

Alan J. Schnirman, the board's attorney, said the court hearing was postponed because there was not a five-member quorum to discuss the lawsuit during executive session at the June 24 board meeting.

Schnirman said some board members left the executive session within one minute of it starting.

"I will speak to the judge about the future of this case," Schnirman said.

Morris vetoed the appointment of Allen last November, saying the search process was flawed and he was not the best candidate for a permanent superintendent.

School board members insist that they know what's best for students in the community.